Existence wants us to be Humans

Existence wants us to be Humans

We see that good-bad, beneficial-harmful, happy-sad, all opposite experiences come our way and all happen through existential intelligence. Now a question arises in our minds whether murdering, drinking, adultery, cheating, theft, eating non-veg etc are also being done through existential intelligence and whether we should accept them for if there was anything wrong with it why would have nature allowed it to happen.

Existence wants you to be human. And to be human you need to rise above your animal behavior which has followed you through your long journey. So, there is this tension, on one hand it is an attempt to be human and on the other hand the animal behavior is still following you. And therefore, you keep moving, trying to balance on this tension wire. They coexist and then with the force on one pole of animal behavior, you are pushed ahead towards human behavior and from there you transcend to the opposite pole of divinity. Now this struggle can be noticed in all human behavior.

Through the basic needs of a human i.e. food, sleep and sex; we shall try to see how from animal behavior we move on to human behavior.

Food –human body is not designed for eating animal products. The attraction for non-veg food is again coming from the deep-rooted violence from the animal nature in us. The primitive man used to go hunting, risking his life, the animal or the man either could overpower the other and when the man would win and return alive with the carcass of the animal, there would be celebration, and the animal would become the food for them. This violent tendency from the animal nature is still following us that finds its expression in eating non- veg food. Not only by eating non-veg food but this violence is seen in us in the way we approach the food irrespective of what we eat. People attack at the food while eating; impatient and forceful, gulping down the gullet are all outcomes of the primitive violence in us. But as we move towards being human, this tendency gradually reduces and at times drops completely. This has to be seen not only in relation to food we eat but the general behavior in us. In everything that we do, we can observe the animal and the divine in us and then the animal is left behind and we proceed to divinity.

Sleep– Drinking alcohol, again is a process to make you sleep. To be human is an attempt at waking. When you are trying to wake up then the opposite arises simultaneously; and there are ways of making you go back to sleep. The drink gives you the kick for a while but soon it also throws you out of gear and makes you sleep. You continue to be dissatisfied. It is only a human being that chooses to wake up and as he tries to wake, existentially such things are born that make you sleep. One who has never experienced sleep will never know waking up. So, the opposite rises to make you understand the value of the opposite. If no sadness is there, how would you appreciate happiness? Once you experience the limitations of this behavior, then with its force you are thrown to the opposite experience of alertness and wakefulness and then you transcend both and go beyond, fully awakened.

Sex—Love and commitment are only found in humans. And as soon as love enters with commitment, simultaneously adultery also arises. In adultery, a person is desirous to complete oneself and he identifies different qualities in different people and tries to satisfy his different needs by associating with different people.

If he tries to find completeness through one, he feels threatened, because the one enters so deeply and brings about a complete change in his life that one begins to lose oneself to other and as you want to retain your identity, as you are not ready to lose yourself, you do not enter into any commitment and any relationship completely.

Love brings completeness but at the same time it involves dissolution, a new you. You are not ready for that, so as an alternative, you go into various relationships trying to complete yourself and it does not happen, and you remain fragmented and hence dissatisfied. Then the intensity and pain of this dissatisfaction may trigger you to the opposite; a relationship of fulfillment and commitment, of love and bliss.

Likewise, all opposites, what you understand as negativity are experiences of animal behavior and once you experience its pain and limitation and understand its nature, it gives the impetus, the force to move into human nature and transcending that you move further to divinity. The existential intelligence cooperates with you as it wants you to be human and then explore your way to divinity. Hence bad is not that bad after all. Good and bad, positive and negative are all mental suggestions and interpretations that are again coming from a primitive, sleeping and animal nature.